Chords for Piano Lessons - How to Play Softly on the Piano - Controlling Quiet Playing

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Hello, I'm Robert Estrid here at livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com with a technique video.
How do you control quiet playing on the piano?
There's an artistry to this.
Now first of all, your piano must be _ impeccably regulated in voice to even attempt a real
pianissimo because if the notes don't respond mechanically [Fm] or sonically uniform from note
to note, how can you possibly get quiet?
You can't because [F#m] some notes will fall off before others.
Now I've had the good fortune of playing absolutely _ superbly regulated in voice pianos for the
time I was born because my father Mort Nestrin is a concert pianist so we always had great
[N] pianos at home and whenever he played concerts I'd go and get the chance to try the pianos
at his recording sessions and such.
So I'm going to start off by telling you a little bit about what I learned from my father.
Well, my father has many recordings of Rachmaninoff and Scherabin and Brahms and he had a reputation
for being able to fill the largest halls with tremendous sound.
In fact, smaller concert halls were sometimes not big enough for his massive fortissimos
that he could get.
Just when you thought everything was as loud as it could be, there were other levels possible.
But the other secret about my father's playing is his control of pianissimo which is really unparalleled.
I've heard very few pianists ever who dare to play that quietly because it takes a lot
of courage as a performer.
When you're in a hall with an audience, if you play that quietly, you're demanding their
attention because everybody has to sit very still and not even ruffle their feet or anything
because to hear.
But when you do that, the expressive capabilities are just, they make the hairs on the back
of your neck stand up because of the beauty of the tone.
So how do you achieve this?
How can you possibly achieve that quiet playing and still get the control, the line, the singing well?
Back to my father and how he described to me, because I studied with my father until
I went away to music conservatory after high school, _ and he describes the pianissimo playing.
Imagine the energy of the sun and you block it all out completely except for one pinhole.
The energy that comes through there, that is one description of a pianissimo line on
the piano or any instrument for that matter.
_ As a French hornist, I was a double major at the Manhattan School of Music in French
horn and piano.
Playing softly requires actually as much if not more energy on a wind instrument than
playing loud because when you're playing loud, you take a big breath and you blow it out.
When you play softly, you take a big breath, put it under some tension with your diaphragm
to support the air flow and that's how you control it on the wind instrument.
So what is the analog for the piano?
That's what I'm about to show you.
_ The secret of the piano, of getting a singing line, is the fact that you have to have something
that mimics the breath of a wind instrument or singing or the bow of a violin.
Some way to get from note to note with consistency.
Now, you might think you could just calculate each note and try to play the same level or
gradually a little bit more on each key to get a crescendo or a little bit less on each
key to get a decrescendo, but you know what?
If you take that approach, you'll end up with calculated sounding playing.
You will not get a singing line.
So the secret is using the weight of the arm and transferring the weight from finger to
finger and when playing pianissimo, staying close to the keys with a minimal amount of
motion, yes, with arm weight and it's the arm weight that enables you to control the pianissimo.
So for example, if I played, _ let's say it would be a good example, I'll play the beginning
of the Andante Spinato and Gran Polonaise and get a sustained pianissimo line on top
and see how, when I'm playing the notes, even though I've struck the key, you think, oh,
you're done with it.
No need to have any kind of weight on the key, just the opposite.
The only way you're going to be able to get a transfer from note to note, particularly
in a slow pianissimo melody, is by having that weight on one note so that the weight
can transfer to the next finger and still sound at exactly the level that you [A#] imagine
up here, creating the illusion of line.
Because yes, folks, the piano is strictly technically not capable of a true singing
line because every note [F] is fading away as soon as you play it, even on the [G] finest piano.
So it is an illusion and here's how you can achieve it, using the arm weight. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ I'd love to play the whole piece for you on this wonderful piano.
In fact, there is a performance of me playing the complete Andante Spinato and Gran Polonaise
that you can check out for yourself to hear the subtleties of expression that are possible
when you utilize the weight of the arm, keep the fingers close to the keys, use a minimal
amount of energy.
Thanks for joining me.
Robert Estern here at livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com.
Thanks for joining me.
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